Nine in 10 Singaporeans Use AI-Powered Platforms to Manage Finances, MDRT Survey Finds

The divide between how Singaporeans manage their money and how they used to do it is narrowing fast. A new survey from the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) finds that nearly nine out of ten people in Singapore now turn to digital platforms — including AI-powered tools — for everything from everyday budgeting to researching investment opportunities. More than a third already use AI specifically for financial purposes, and nearly one in five of those users treat AI-generated advice as their primary decision-making input.

The MDRT survey, released this week, captured how deeply AI has penetrated personal finance in Singapore. Among respondents who use AI for money management, 19 per cent said they rely primarily on what the tools tell them when making financial decisions. Many also reported that AI influences their savings habits, helps compare financial products, and even factors into major investment or property decisions. ChatGPT and Google Gemini are the most commonly cited platforms, particularly among younger consumers who cite convenience, lower cost, and the ability to make sense of complex financial concepts as the main draws.

The data tracks a pattern common across Singapore's digital economy: adoption runs ahead of comfort. While usage numbers are high, the survey also found that most Singaporeans still view AI as a complement to — not a replacement for — human financial advisors. Concerns over lack of human oversight, potential errors, and generic or impersonal recommendations remain widespread. Around four in ten clients still prefer face-to-face meetings when discussing complex financial matters, and half favour in-person consultations during periods of market volatility — a finding that matters in a year when global markets have been rattled by AI-sector sell-offs and geopolitical shocks.

This tension between adoption and trust is playing out across Singapore's wealth management industry at a time when the sector is under pressure to deliver more personalised service at scale. Banks and advisory firms are investing heavily in AI tools for portfolio management, risk profiling, and customer engagement — HSBC's recently announced global AI centre in Singapore will develop exactly these kinds of wealth management applications. But the MDRT data suggests that the return on those investments may depend less on how powerful the technology is and more on how well firms manage the handoff between AI-driven efficiency and human judgment when the stakes get high.

Why it matters for Singapore: Singapore's ambition to be a global wealth management hub runs parallel to its push to become a leading AI hub. The MDRT survey shows those two tracks are already converging in everyday consumer behaviour, but it also highlights a gap that the industry will need to close: the more people use AI for routine financial tasks, the more they seem to value human advice for the decisions that matter most. For Singapore's banks, fintechs, and advisory firms, the winning formula may not be AI-first or human-first, but something in between — and the firms that figure out that blend first will have a structural advantage in one of the world's fastest-growing wealth markets.